Brother Ali - The Puzzle lyrics

(Who's to blame for the state I'm in
I play my cards but somehow can't win)

Listen when life leaves you beaten up
Don't lay around in it
Hurry pick them pieces up
Cling closely to the people you love
They're your umbrella when the weathers tough
See to it that your head is up
If not just remember this
Just never let your chest and
Your chin touch in public
Those that stand against us would love this
Man fuck them, something's bugging em'
They feel inadequate or something and
That's been dug in em'
So deep they can't stand
Someone else making shit
Player hatred, same concept created Satan
Play em, no never mind let em play their part
They're here to make us prove we
Are what we say we are
We say we are the hard hearted
Been discarded from everything we've
Ever been part of they just robbed it
Unguarded, tormented and tortured
And got nothing but scars and grey
Hairs to show for it fuck that
Every stone that's ever been cast
Or blow that ever landed
Helped to build that man that's
Standing before your bitch ass
And back to wreak havoc and never retired
Retreated or recanted
I, don't expect you to have
Stood where I'm standing
Why, respect is the only thing I'm demanding
Try, you and I could build this understanding
You can't honestly shake unless you know
Where my hand's been brother

This is a piece of my puzzle now
Through the years I found peace
In my struggle now
If we were put here to carry a great weight
The very things we hate are
Here to build those muscles
This is a piece of my puzzle now
Through the years I found peace
In my struggle now
(Who's to blame for the state
I'm in - Yours truly
I play my cards but somehow I can't win)

Listen I was taught that mistakes
Made with great intentions
Were never sins but where life lessons begin
Now that I'm 27
Single father starting over yet again
I am who I have to forgive
Lost my mumma to cancer
Closed a 10 year chapter shortly after
Can't deny that was some shit
Alone in this life would've been at
My throat with a knife chop
Were it not for my passion to live
Follow my soul
Not that I don't know the penalty
But that's the legacy that I pass to my kids
Heard of shining in the heat of the moment
And won my freedom the moment
I realized that's what this

I can't believe my eyes Lord
I don't know what I'm seeing
I done watched them smash into little
Pieces everything I've been building
I can't believe my ears Lord
I don't know what I'm hearing
I heard they smash into little
Pieces everything I've been building

(Who's to blame for the state I'm in
I play my cards but somehow I can't win)